


Into the Sun

by victoria_p (musesfool)



Series: Dog Days of Summer [32]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: dogdaysofsummer, M/M, fugitive!Sirius
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-01
Updated: 2006-07-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 06:53:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3640872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musesfool/pseuds/victoria_p
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Only Remus will find him, since it is only by Remus that he wishes to be found.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to amberlynne for looking it over. Set between PoA and GoF.

The sand is soft beneath his paws and hot, but he likes the heat, after so many years of nothing but cold grey stone--the endless chill of the North Atlantic has settled in his bones, and he doesn't think it will ever go away.

He avoids the gulls--he has vague memories of childhood summers spent at the shore, sharp beaks and talons stealing bread crusts from stubby toddler fingers and the laughter of adults in the background.

He sneaks beneath the boardwalk and transforms, stolen shorts and shirt hanging loose on his thin frame, hair wet with seawater and sweat, feet bare and luxuriating in heat against his soles and sand between his toes. He reaches into his pocket, pulls out the postcard, creased from being read and reread and stained from being dragged through water and sand when he's a dog, transformed but still present, a warm, secret spot against his hip, hope seared into his skin.

 _Mid-afternoon on the twenty-third_ , it says in Remus's neat script, and though Sirius knows it's vague and probably impossible, he clings to it like a promise.

Every movement, every brown-haired man, every ordinary face, makes his heart rise, and then fall. He wanders the beach aimlessly, knowing that only Remus will find him, since it is only by Remus that he wishes to be found. There is a magic in hiding, in finding, and it's this as much as anything that has kept him from being caught when he becomes reckless.

He follows the curve of the shore and when he is heading west into the sun, he sees a man bent over, hands scrabbling in the receding foam, rolled cuffs of his trousers speckled from the spray.

Remus straightens, and turns to look at him, mouth curving into a smile. "Hey," he says, holding out a hand, still wet from the ocean.

Sirius takes it, and in the long, curled fingers a stone is cradled, worn smooth by the sea and warmed by the sun.

He raises his eyebrows and Remus shrugs, the tips of his ears red, and Sirius knows it's not from the sun. With a bark of laughter, Sirius slips the stone into his pocket alongside the postcard, one more tangible reminder of hope, and continues walking towards the sun.

Remus falls into step beside him.

*


End file.
